The Galactic Travel Agency - Expand your horizons!

IF YOU ARE COMING FROM DISTANT WORLDS 2 PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE:

THIS THREAD IS OLD AND OUTDATED, AND DOES NOT APPROPRIATELEY REFLECT THE IDENTITY AND PURPOSE OF THE GALACTIC TRAVEL AGENCY GOING FORWARD. A NEW THREAD WILL BE POSTED VERY SOON WITH APPROPRIATE NEW INFORMATION. THE NEW THREAD WILL BE LINKED HERE BY THEN.

From Sol to Sagitarrius A* to Beagle Point - where do you want to go?

Exploration has always been a favorite pasttime for many of us. Discovering distant stars, surveying distant worlds and making distant hauls to Colonia, there has been lots of things for us explorers to do over the last few years. Some of us can travel thousands of lightyears on end, discovering countless earthlikes, and systems which you would have to see yourself to believe. We discover planetary nebula and earthlikes around neutron stars. Ammonia moons and binary earthlikes. What we see on a regular basis is incredible, and makes the thousands of lightyears we travel each day more than bearable.

But the issue is, not everyone is capable of this.
However, there might now be a solution.

Introducing The Galactic Travel Agency! - Expand your horizons today!

What?

Using the soon to be implemented multicrew functionality which allows a player to be instantly teleported to anywhere in the galaxy, we will be able to give people who do not have the time, the credits or are otherwise unable to explore, the jaw-dropping experience of the Elite : Dangerous galaxy! By having a large roster of "hosts" each at different locations troughout the galaxy, some on POIs, some just doing their regular exploration buisness we can provide plentifull of experiences for CMDRs who simply can't manage to get out there themselves, or for explorers who just want to get a sneak peak of what they can travel to themselves in the future! From beautiful stations within the bubble, to Sagitarrius A* and the distant star systems around Beagle Point - nothing is out of reach!

How?If you want to travel somewhere**This will not work until Elite : Dangerous 2.3 comes out.

Simply search trough the catalogs of commanders willing to hitch you a ride, join the discord and/or contact the commanders directly! While not all commanders will be online at all times, and are not always willing to hitch you a ride, you are certain to find someone willing to take you somewhere special most of the time. One second you might be hauling slaves in the empire, and in the next enjoying the sights from the top of the galaxy! Not only do you get to see amazing sightes only veteraned explorers get to enjoy usually, but you get to meet all kinds of new people, from RP-hard alliance pilots to casual federal pilots to constantly joking imperial pilots! While the sights certainly are impressive, the bond you might develop with a random stranger could be just as memorable if not even more!

If you want to contribute

As this feature is not yet announced it is difficult to predict exactly how this will work, however we here at the galactic travel agency have devised a plan on how to deal with it to allow as many as possible to contribute to this awesome project.

1. Spreadsheet. By having an easily accesible google spreadsheet (Link further down) all pilots who wishes to contribute can easily write up their name, ship and approximate position on the galaxy and update it gradually as they go. You can also write the usual times you are online to ensure that whoever wishes to join you contact you at the right point.

2. Discord Server. By having a discord server one can easily announce their plans to participate in this project in the various text channels. While it is advised that all hosts write themselves up on the google spreadsheet the discord server remains to be an easy way to request host locations, announce a hosts plan on when he/she is online as well as allowing for communication between organizers, hosts and tourists alike. Various voice channels will also be open so hosts can discuss between eachother or the tourists they are hosting.

3. Forum. While the forum is by far the slowest and will be the least used of the 3 ways of contacting organizers, hosts and tourists alike, it is still a good way of getting in contact with the project. You can leave a reply requesting for a specific host location, ask if there is anything someone would reccomend or just have a chat about something else regarding the project. The benefit to doing this is that by replying you are also keeping the project front paged and therefore exposing it to more people, meaning that in the future it is more likely to be more hosts, more tourists and more interest in the project as a whole!

Why?

The reason we, more specifically I want to do this is because i have a genuine belief that exploration is amazing. From my first trips to the outer rim, to when i first met Sagitarrius A* face to face, and my eventual participation in DWE i have experienced a lot of fun things while exploring, and a lot of that has been because of my extensive free time and will to travel large distances. Not everyone has a lot of free time or will to travel large distances, and therefore a lot of the galaxy is locked behind a wall which they will never overcome. While i certainly think that the effort and time investment that comes with exploration certainly is some of what makes it fun for some of us like me, i do also realize that this is a huge barrier for other people. And as the galaxy is so stunningly beautiful, i don't wish that only some people are able to experience it fully.

This project was inspired by the fuel rats and the amazing services they gave and are continuing to give to regular players and explorers the like. They are awesome, and you should definetley give them some praise even if you have not been rescued by them. Seriously, they are amazing, let's hope we will be as amazing at some point too.

I wish to participate, will you give me those links you kept refering to?

Joining the Galactic Travel Agency (TGTA) discord:

1. Visit the Colonia Citizens Network (CCN) site.
2. Read the rules of the discord, then click the button "Join CCN"
3. You will then be directed to the discord server of the CCN, please register as a user on discord if you haven't already!
4. Either navigate to the chat room called "The Galactic Travel Agency" or write the message "I'm looking for the Travel Agency Offices"
5. You will now be at the discord chat room of the TGTA, feel free to have a chat about anything regarding the project!

1. Create a new logo
2. Create a new header
3. Create a new signature pic.

If you wish to attempt any of the above you are more than welcome, just do not use copyrighted material.

What are you waiting for? Join now!

While 2.3 is still far from release, you can still sign up on the spreadsheet and join the discord! The more players we have on launch day willing to take passengers the more fun for everyone involved!

If you happen to be one of the lucky with 2.3 beta access, please check out our BETA BAILOUT event, which will take place on 26/03/2017 @ 6PM UTC. https://goo.gl/cNYCjb

If you would like to support more directly here's a few things i currently need some help with:

1. New header image. While the one that i have right now is certainly not bad, it's not the best either. If someone here has a good editing software and plenty of elite dangerous screenshots (primarily of nebulae and planets) they are more than invited to try to upgrade the header currently in use or even try to make an entirely new one! Just do not use any copyrighted material.

2. Signature. I made a prototype signature picture, but as you can see it is not the best. Again if anyone has a good picture editing software they are more than welcome to try to make a good signature picture for all participants to use if they desire. Just do not use any copyrighted material.

3.. Logo. Not urgent, but it would be cool to have a logo of sorts. Something like the Distant Worlds/Stars badge or just something as simple as that of the Fuel rats. Could also be applied to the header. Again please do not use any copyrighted material.

Thanks again!

- - - Updated - - -

Update : Forgot about one thing; Added platform to the spreadsheet and PS4 + Xbox One chat rooms to the discord.

Given that Exploration gameplay is almost non-existent, what are passengers supposed to be doing? Snap pictures? I mean don't get me wrong, it's a nice idea in theory, but maybe you should flesh out the exploration mechanic a bit before launching something this social.

Sorry I hate to so negative when you guys are trying to build something very cool in theory, but just don't see the how useful it will be given the lack of development of exploration. I've been on DWE all the way to Beagle Point. I survived the boredom of flying around in SC and driving on planets with nothing but dirt and ice. I don't think I'd want to inflict it on anyone else though. Not until we get more scanners and choices and danger. Some useful reason to be out there other than as a photography tripod.

This is an amazing idea... It'll give CMDRs who don't have the time or inclination to go on long trips a taste of what's out there.

Conversely, multicrew could be used to give CMDRs not to well versed in pew-pew-pew some trigger time with more experienced passengers, or offer combat "vacations" for pilots deep in the black who want a break from honk-jumping.

This is like the Fuel Rats, except they rescue you from boredom instead of yourself..